La knabino estas malsata, kaj ŝi petas rizon kun tomatoj.

La is the definite article, like the in English. So la knabino means the girl, not just a girl or girl.

Esperanto has only one article: la. It does not change for gender, number, or case.

Knabino can be broken down like this:

• knab- = the idea of a young male person, boy
• -in- = female suffix
• -o = noun ending

So knabo = boy, and knabino = girl.

This is a very common pattern in Esperanto.

The ending -as marks the present tense.

So:

• estas = is / are / am
• petas = asks / is asking

In Esperanto, all present-tense verbs end in -as, no matter who the subject is. You do not change the verb the way English changes I am, she is, they are.

Because Esperanto often forms opposites with the prefix mal-.

Here:

• sata = full, satisfied with food
• malsata = not full, so hungry

This is a very common Esperanto word-building pattern. Learning mal- early is very useful.

Because malsata is an adjective, and adjectives in Esperanto end in -a.

So:

• knabino = noun, ends in -o
• malsata = adjective, ends in -a

In this sentence, malsata describes la knabino: the girl is hungry.

Because it is not a direct object. It is a predicate adjective after estas.

In La knabino estas malsata:

• la knabino is the subject
• estas links the subject to a description
• malsata describes the subject

So there is no accusative -n here.

Ŝi is pronounced roughly like shee.

The letter ŝ sounds like English sh. So:

• ŝi = she

Esperanto uses a few letters with marks above them, and each one has a fixed pronunciation.

Because ŝi is the pronoun she.

Just like in English, once the person has already been mentioned, Esperanto often uses a pronoun instead of repeating the noun:

• La knabino estas malsata, kaj ŝi...
• The girl is hungry, and she...

This makes the sentence sound natural and less repetitive.

Here petas means asks for or requests.

The verb is peti = to ask for, request.

So:

• ŝi petas rizon = she asks for rice

This is important: in Esperanto, the thing requested is often a direct object, so no extra word like for is needed.

Because rizon is the direct object of petas, and direct objects usually take the accusative ending -n in Esperanto.

So:

• rizo = rice
• rizon = rice as the direct object

In ŝi petas rizon, the rice is what she is asking for, so it gets -n.

Because -j marks the plural.

So:

• tomato = tomato
• tomatoj = tomatoes

That matches the meaning with tomatoes.

Because tomatoj comes after the preposition kun (with), and nouns after prepositions normally do not take the accusative -n.

So:

• kun tomatoj = with tomatoes

The direct object is rizon, not tomatoj.

Because Esperanto often leaves out la unless the noun is specifically definite.

So:

• rizon = rice
• tomatoj = tomatoes

This sounds natural if the sentence just means she wants some rice with tomatoes, not necessarily the rice or the tomatoes already known to both speaker and listener.

Not completely. Esperanto word order is fairly flexible because endings show the grammar.

For example, rizon has -n, so you can tell it is the direct object even if the order changes.

Still, La knabino estas malsata, kaj ŝi petas rizon kun tomatoj is the most natural and straightforward order for a beginner:

• subject
• verb
• object
• prepositional phrase

So the sentence is both correct and natural as written.